WORSHIPPING AT THE ALTAR OF THE BLACK SUN
When speaking to guitarist and vocalist Andrew Schoepfer of the Calgary death doom band Ominosity, several things became apparent. Schoepfer is intelligent and extremely deliberate, qualities reflected in the ominous and crushing hymns of blasphemous ecstasy that the group has performed since 2008.
“I’m very much inspired by the thoughts of Julius Evola and René Guénon…” Schoepfer begins, referring to the Italian philosopher deeply involved in spiritualism, mysticism and sexuality and the French intellectual who dealt in the intricacies of being, knowing, identity, time and space, respectively. Accordingly, his bands recordings are infused with inspiration culled from the aforementioned and other metaphysicians, esoteric thinkers and death metal royalty, including Autopsy, diSEMBOWELMENT and Incantation. Alongside these arcane wisdoms and ideological stances exists a bolder source of inspiration.
“Truth be told, I go to the symphony more often than I go to metal shows,” Schoepfer candidly admits. His band mates – including vocalist Peter Tyukasz, second guitarist Grant Freudenthaler, bassist Richard Romanow and percussionist Phil Fies (also of Victoria’s Funeral Circle and Calgary’s Garotting Deep) – each have their own individual influences. Collectively, the result is slow, guttural, deviant and oddly beautiful death metal that can be heard on their two releases: their debut EP Altar of the Black Sun (2010) and the recently released split with Calgary’s one-man esoteric death metal act Garotting Deep.
“Generally, I probably listen to more classical music than metal,” expands Schoepfer. “I wouldn’t say that you can really hear that in our music, yet… but I like to think there’s a little bit in there as far as the way we structure the songs.
He jokingly concludes, “There still isn’t a Wagnerian horn section yet, but who knows.”
See Ominosity on July 13 at Vern’s Bar as part of the Fuck Off Life Fest.
By Tanner Wolff
